On Monday, May 2nd, Westminster’s Daniel Taylor and Ellis Allen won the Tournament of Champions (TOC) in the policy debate division for the second year in a row. There is no doubt in my mind that as national champions, they will always be remembered and have some place in the debate community.
If you remember my first blog post, I mentioned how debate taught me about assumptions. As my last blog post, I want to talk about the other things debate has taught me over the years.
The TOC is the three day span every high school debater works toward. To qualify, each team had to do very well at two other tournaments earlier in the season. Just being qualified to attend is highly competitive. The teams that consistently did well worked extremely hard and dedicated themselves to the activity. Hard work paying off is something even non-debaters should be able to appreciate and even young debaters learn early on.
Arguably my most valued lesson from debate, however, took me the longest to learn. Determining who I am and what I stand for.
There have been scandals in the debate community, just as there are scandals in every activity. There are unethical actions one can take to either benefit their team or disadvantage their competition. Even if people choose not to fabricate or steal evidence, however, there's still tension of what you "have" to do to be the best. Considering how much work everyone does and how competitive every debate is, there's a false assumption of how someone has to act. No one has to be arrogant or condescending in the cross-examinations (questioning periods) to succeed. Daniel & Ellis exhibited that brilliantly.
The Julia Burke award acknowledges and exemplifies this. Julia was a debater who passed away in a car accident in 1998. According to their website, the award is to "recognize the high school policy debater who most closely upholds the combination of characteristics that Julia displayed in her love for the activity. These qualities include excellence in and passion for debate, a commitment to helping others, love and respect for the policy debate community and dedication to maintaining friendships despite the pressures of competition."
This year's recipient was Damien's Nadeem Farooqi. He deserves it immensely. Everyone loves Nadeem. I truly cannot think of a situation where I heard a bad word uttered about him.
Leaving debate I realized this is what was important to me. It's much more likely people will remember who you were, how you carried yourself as a person, rather than how many debates you won.
By all means, try your best in whatever activity you choose to participate in. But try in a way the builds your activity. Give back to it. Give it respect and leave the best person you can be.
